American Go E-Journal » Events/Tournaments

Karsten Henckell 4D took top honors at the Fort Myers Open, held December 6, when the Fort Myers Go Club hosted one of the largest tournaments ever held in the state of Florida. With player strength ranging from 30 kyu to 4 dan, 54 players turned out, and “Registration of new and old members had a line out the door!” reports Tournament Director Joshua Frye. “It was awesome to see the range of ages playing each other,” Frye reports. “Go clubs from all over the state turned out, including Orlando, Miami, and Sarasota.” Players battled it out in three divisions for prizes from Yellow Mountain Imports and Slate & Shell Publishing. In the final top match, Henckell faced off against Joshua Lee 4D of Go Orlando. “It was an intense match to watch!!” said Fort Myers go member Rob Cheyne. Entering the endgame, Lee was ahead on points, but Henckell pressured Lee into overtime. “During one of Joshua Lee’s captures, he forgot to hit his clock and ultimately lost on time.” WINNER’S REPORT: Advanced Division: 1st: Karsten Henckell 4Dan (Sarasota Go); 2nd: Chi Wong 4k (Miami Go); 3rd: Joshua Lee 4D (Go Orlando). Intermediate Division: 1st: Rob Cheyne 6k (Fort Myers Go); 2nd: Joong Suk 6k (Sarasota Go); 3rd: Carlos Valdes 9k (Miami Go). Beginner Division: 1st: Nathan Slider 14k (Fort Myers Go); 2nd: Jake King 10k (Fort Myers Go); 3rd: Nick Ponader 13k (Fort Myers Go). Photo: Karsten Henckell 4D vs. Joshua Lee 4D; photo courtesy Joshua Frye

Visiting Nihon Kiin instructor Shunichi Hyodo 6d took top honors in Sunday’s monthly tournament at the New York Go Club in New York City. “A strong and large range of players attended, ranging from 6 dan to 13 kyu,” reports Tournament Director Roman Kudryashov. Adam Connell 8k went undefeated for strong victory in the single-digit kyu range, while Frederick Smadja 13k won the double-digit kyu division and Shunichi Hyodo 6d won the dan division. “The prize pool, each prize donated by a player, was raided like a holiday gift exchange,” Kudryashov adds, “with every victor finding something they liked.”

A team of players from Shanghai, China will be attending the annual Jujo Jiang Goe Tournament, to be held January 3rd and 4th in San Francisco, CA. They’ll be led by Jujo Jiang (right) 9P and Rui NaiWei 9P. The tournament is sponsored by the Ing Goe Foundation and the San Francisco Chinese Culture Center; all levels are welcome at the AGA-rated event and there will be prizes in four divisions: Open, Dan, Kyu and Novice. Click here to register (there’s a $10 discount for current AGA members).

Harried volunteer go club organizers worldwide will be delighted to hear that online software is now available to help run a club and local tournaments. “GoClubsOnline makes it easy for players to register for your tournaments online,” says Robert Cordingley, “as well as to export player lists to popular pairings programs, track club memberships, monitor club libraries, keep results of club games, submit rated club games to the AGA and take care of book-keeping.” The site is free for subscribers and club members and club organizers can open a Club Account for as little as $95 per year. Other features include email facilities to communicate with tournament attendees and club members, profit and loss reports for each tournament or the club as a whole, membership analysis and tournament registration trends. The system is an upgrade from HGC-Online, developed for Cordingley’s Houston Go Club, which has been in use since February “and has saved us tons of time,” he says. GoClubsOnline also includes a growing list of productivity tools including printing winners certificates and club membership cards. “The most important benefit though is that it saves club organizers and volunteers tons of time so that they can play more go!” For more information visit the GoClubsOnline website or email admin@goclubs.org

At a lecture at this year’s U.S. Go Congress, Takemiya Masaki (right) 9P insisted that it is very important in go to play where you want to, not where you think you ought to. He said that no one believes he is serious about this. It’s easy to understand why. The issue here is what it means to be a “honte” go player. First, think about why we play the game. Surely it’s because we enjoy it: no one is forcing us to play. Those of us at the Congress paid a lot to attend. Takemiya assumes we all agree with this, but he notices that a lot of players often seem to find playing an unpleasant and frustrating experience. He suggested this is because we are worried about where we should play next in the game. For many of us this worry is based in a concern about our ratings, which is what drives us to worry about winning the game we’re playing. It may well be that the excessive focus on ratings so characteristic of the current AGA culture – player rank was the most visible part of Congress ID badges — is the greatest barrier to enjoying playing. The solution is to quit worrying about ratings and winning. Instead, look over the board carefully, and play wherever you want to. Of course, this approach may lead to losses, but it’s the only way to become a real go player, playing your own style of go. This approach requires two essential things, which is where your feelings for the game come from: studying seriously and reviewing your games carefully. Seeing what does and doesn’t work shapes your feeling for the game in the direction that leads to better play. So don’t worry, be happy. Follow your feelings when you play and you’ll not only enjoy the game more, you’ll be a real go player and not someone who only thinks they are a go player.

Canadian teenager Gan Sheng Shi (left) defeated both Mingjiu Jiang and Huiren Yang last weekend to earn a berth in the North American Fujitsu Cup championship final against Jie Li. The excitement continued Sunday when the final had to be adjourned because of technical difficulties. It was excitement on all fronts during the North American Fujitsu Cup championship. While top seeds Jie Li, Andy Liu and Huiren Yang made it through unscathed to the semi-finals, defending champion Mingjiu Jiang let a favourable position evaporate when he lost on time to Redmond Cup champion Gan Sheng Shi. The Canadian teenager then astonished a crowd of 500 by taking down professional Huiren Yang to earn a spot in the finals against perennial strongman Jie Li. The excitement continued when Jie Li suffered network problems at move 55 of the final game and could not reconnect to continue. The game has been adjourned and will be rescheduled at a later date. Click here for complete details on the tournament so far.– Philip Waldron, AGA Tournament Coordinator

Dae Hyuk (Danny) Ko (right) 7D (AGA 8.712) took first place in the Myung In Tournament, held November 15-16 in Los Angeles, CA. The Los Angeles Go Club, a popular 7-day playing spot in LA’s Koreatown, hosted the tournament, which was organized by the newly-formed Korean American Baduk Association. About 50 players, including a number from outside the Korean community, played in two handicap sections and one open section for $4,000 in prizes, won by Ko, of the Santa Monica Go Club. The tournament also featured an exhibition game between two Southern California professionals, Myung Wan Kim 8P and Yilun Yang 7P. “Sunday evening dinner was provided to all the players,” reports Andy Okun, “and there was a raffle of donated goods as well, in which your correspondent unexpectedly won 40 pounds of rice.” Korean American Baduk Association officials plan to hold more events in the coming year.

Trevor Morris (left) 7D swept the Western Massachusetts Go Club’s Fall tournament, held November 23 in Boston. Morris was undefeated in four rounds to claim the first-place trophy, while three players had 3 wins each: Eric Osman 2d (3-1), Richard Buckman 7k (3-1) and William Luff 10k (3-1). Click here for a full report, including photos by Bill Saltman.

Cho U 9P took the second game of his challenge for the Tengen title held by Kono Rin 9P to make the score 2-0 in the best-of-five-game match. Kono, who has held this title for the last three years, defeating Yamashita Keigo 9P in the title match each year, will have a hard fight to make it four. Cho’s winning percentage so far this year is 79%, while Kono’s is 60%, so the odds favor Cho’s taking another of the top seven Japanese titles — he already holds the Meijin and Gosei.